Happy 4th of July!
by bethechange1011
Summary: "So, the fireworks are tonight, aren't they? They are the camp's biggest date event, you know." All of America is celebrating today, and Camp Half Blood is no exception. Nico di Angelo's day, however, has been a disaster. Maybe a certain son of Apollo will help change that. Solangelo one-shot in honor of both July 4th and the fact that ALL marriage is now legalized.


**AN: Hey guys! Happy 4th! Or- if you are one of my awesome readers that lives in a different country, happy random Saturday or Sunday (or Friday evening?) in your life!**

 **I wanted to do something to celebrate #LoveWins (AKA the fact that gay marriage is now legalized in the USA), and something for the 4th of July, so I kind of combined the two ideas. Yes, I know, I broke my own rule and chose a technically non-canon ship. However, said ship is heavily implied, and I'm pretty sure that after Blood of Olympus, it overtook the whole fandom. So, you guessed it, I'm doing Solangelo. Hope you like it!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians nor do I own the Heroes of Olympus series. Seriously, how many of these do I have to write?**

It was summer at Camp Half Blood, meaning that the place was overflowing with campers. For this purpose only, Camp Jupiter had refrained from visiting. However, that didn't stop several Iris messages between the Seven, Reyna, and Nico. And Coach Hedge who wished Hazel, Frank, and Reyna a happy 4th- after probably causing them to go deaf by warning them to stay behaved.

Most of the campers were so far having a good day. Percy had received a specially made blue apple pie at lunch, which was gone faster than anyone could blink; Piper had gotten the pleasure of watching Drew pout over not having a date to the fireworks that afternoon; Leo was working on said fireworks in Cabin 9 and having a great time designing them; Jason (who was the one visitor from Camp Jupiter that _did_ come) and the Athena Cabin spent the morning planning tactics for the game of Capture the Flag that afternoon.

Nico, however, was not. He had been excited for Hazel to come over, only to have to settle for an Iris message. Then, as he walked out of his Cabin, he found that someone had replaced the green fire with pink fireworks, most likely the Stolls. Finally, after lunch, the Iris Cabin had run up to him and not only touched him (which he highly disliked) but in doing so, turned his clothes red, white, and blue, so he looked like a metallic, sparkly, and angry Uncle Sam.

After changing his clothing and threatening to put an army of skeletons in the Hermes and Iris cabins that night, it was just about time for Capture the Flag. As it had been of late, Nico's team consisted of Athena, Hephaestus, Hermes, half of Tyche, half of Nike (the latter two cabins were always split as they always won), Hecate, Percy, Calypso, Jason, and the few Aphrodite and Hypnos campers that actually wanted to play. They were- shocker- the blue team.

Nico was on offense and so far, so good. No one had noticed him, as usual, and he had just caught sight of a flash of red. He broke into a swift footed run, 30 feet… 20 feet… 10 feet...

Suddenly, he was knocked to the ground by a boy in armor. Nico landed in a soft patch of grass with the boy on top of him. As he looked up, he swore he could feel his face heat up.

"Thought you could get away with stealing our flag?" Will grinned.

"Geoffume." Nico's voice came out in a barely intelligible murmur.

Will chose to ignore him. "So, the fireworks are tonight, aren't they?"

"Geoffumerighnow."

"They _are_ the camp's biggest date event, you know."

Nico was too dumbstruck to try to get out from under Will again. Was he- was he-

"You wanna go with me?" Will confirmed Nico's suspicions, causing him to turn an even brighter shade of red.

"I-"

"I'll let you go get our flag if you say yes."

"Fine."

Will rolled off of Nico and got up. "I'll see you there." He called as he turned and walked off, although it might have been Nico's imagination or he was also blushing slightly.

* * *

Dinner went by quickly, and soon, the camp was gathered around the fire. Nico had been congratulated on winning the game for the blues all day, but he just shrugged off the praise. His mind was still buzzing from the thought of the fireworks. The Apollo Cabin was down by the fire, leading the campers in a series of patriotic folk songs. Sometime around "Battle Hymn of the Republic", Will held Nico's gaze and winked at him before continuing the song.

Finally, the event everyone had been waiting for had arrived. People brought an assortment of beach towels and beach chairs and chose a spot on the sand. Nico found Will sitting on a plain red towel, not too far from the ocean. Will smiled at him and after a few minutes, too his hand, promptly causing him to turn the same shade as the towel.

This year, the Hephaestus Cabin decided to do large, colorful fireworks with the symbol of a cabin every minute or so. A lightning bolt, followed by a peacock, followed by a trident, a plant, a boar head, et cetera. Each cabin cheered loudly when they saw their symbol. Once a white skull flashed in the sky, Nico remained silent, but soon, the whole Apollo Cabin was whooping, a trend started by Will, who still had not let go of Nico's hand.

Finally, there was a pause after the last symbol went up. During which, Leo's voice boomed out over the beach- only in a chipmunk voice.

"Hello Camp Half Blood! This is commander Leo Valdez, bad boy supreme of the Hephaestus Cabin. Dam it. I knew I shouldn't have used Coach Hedge's megaphone." Leo's voice squeaked.

"KARMA, VALDEZ!" Coach Hedge's voice shouted back from somewhere in the distance. The whole camp laughed.

"Anyways, this is the grand finale, about to go down. We wanted to not only honor the campers themselves, but also the fact that this is the camp's biggest date night-" Whatever Leo said next was drowned out by loud giggling, probably from Cabin 10. "-so, hope you all like it, by the gods it took a while to come up with all of these symbols. GO AHEAD, NYSSA!"

The first series of fireworks was flung into the sky. After a few seconds, it clearly resembled a gray owl with a blue trident in its beak. There was a roar of applause from everyone, even Nico. He had moved on, he was happy for them. Not too far away from them, Percy had grabbed Annabeth and was kissing her, ignoring the hoots from their friends.

Next up was a double ended stick, one end a spear, the other was a caduceus. There was still applause, but naturally, not as enthusiastic. Several more patterns illuminated the sky, including an eagle and dove flying side by side and a picnic basket, half filled with gardening tools and vegetables, the other half filled with power tools. As the latter appeared, chipmunk Leo whooped loudly, followed by "Whoops, I forgot to turn this thing off.", causing more laughter.

Finally, a skeleton holding a lyre appeared. The whole firework was a gradient rainbow, and Nico nearly jumped. He hadn't been expecting anything, he just agreed to go with Will a few hours ago, and they weren't officially together- at least-

Nico's thoughts were cut off when he felt Will's lips pressed against his. His eyes widened in one moment of shock, then closed. He was sure that his face had caught fire, and was vaguely aware of loud, as loud as Percy and Annabeth's, applause all around him, but he didn't care about any of that. It had been so long, too long, since he had known what it felt like to be happy, and this, he thought, was it.

Nico was smiling for the whole rest of the night, a sight so rare that many of the campers couldn't believe it. After their firework, which had been the last, Will had formally asked Nico to be his boyfriend and Nico had gladly accepted. As he fell asleep, the Hades cabin was dark, gloomy, and isolated as usual, but he didn't mind. He had never felt better.

 **AN: I hope you liked it! I had a ton of fun writing it, hopefully as much as you enjoyed reading. Let me know what you thought in the reviews, and thanks for reading! Have a great holiday!**


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